MARRIAGE BOOM IN AUCKLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 152, 22 March 1919, Page 8

MARRIAGE BOOM IN AUCKLAND

MAIUvED INCREASE IN AVEDDINGS THIS YI.AE, 3y TelcEraph—Press Association. Auckland, March 21. Notwithstanding the report that so many New Zealand soldiers are bringing back English brides with them,' there is at the present time an unmistakable boom in marriages in Auckland. The truth of this is proven by a glance at the marriage figures recorded at the' registrar's office. . Ever since the beginning of the war there wm a steady decline, month by month, in the num- J bor of marriages, with. a particularly .noticeable drop in 1917 and 1918, when the, effects of compulsory service were making themselves keenly felt in social as well as in industrial life. ' There wero 210 marriages recoi'ded in the Auckland district, for the taionths of January and February of this year, as against 149 for the similar period of last year. The figures for January since 191G are interesting, showing 142 marriages for that month, with a sudden drop to 80 in the following year, 79 in January of last yenr, anil an encouraging leap to 108 in 1919. "There .is no doubt at all (hat many returning soldiers are marrying," said the registrar; "The number of marriages I have solemnised hero during the last fow weeks has been greater than at any similar period since the men have gone on service." Apart from the marriages of soldier some interesting unions have )>een solemnised by the registrar lately. Two of these were marriages of two Chinese maids, spinsters from Canton, who had crossed' the seas to marry their bethrothcd. The little Oriental brides appeared in nativo costume, trousers and embroidered silken tunics, and very shy and embarrassed they were during the performance of this strange ceremony. Among the least pleasant of tho ceremonies which the registrar is called upon to perform are marriages of New Zealand girls with men of enemy or alien birth. A fow instances of marriage with Germans and Austrians have occurred, despite the revelations of the war, and whilo iliese have not been frequent they have revealed (ho existence of n spirit utterly foreign to the senliment of New Zealand's great majority of patriotic women. '